"At this point there are a lot of things that need to be discussed and it takes time," said Edmonton's player rep, who's had to put in some long hours as the as the NHLPA tries to untangle the big ball of yarn that is its leadership.

"There can be 30 different opinions and a lot of times you have to hear all of them."

A month after they held a marathon meeting in Chicago, in which they voted to fire executive director Paul Kelly at about 3 a.m., they're still dealing with the fallout. Hence the six-hour conference call.

It's a bit more work than Horcoff expected of the position, but he's glad to be doing it.

"I feel like it's important," he said.

"And it's something that if you're going to do it, you need to take it seriously. If I'm going to be involved in it I want to put as much effort as I can into doing it right. You have to be up on everything that's going on, you have to talk to a lot of people."

Coming to a consensus with 30 guys representing about 30 guys each is going to take some time.

"It can be frustrating, but that's the way it goes," said Horcoff, who studied finance at Michigan State University.

"You state what you feel is the right thing to do, and there are times when other guys are going to have views that you disagree with but that's part of it, that's the way our constitution is set up.

"It's more frustrating for me in terms of how things have gone and the negative affect it's had on the media.

"But I know we're doing the right thing and we're going to be a strong union again."